Ferguson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]hile in costody [sic] on the case that I’m currently incarcerated for, I was not fully truthful on the facts pertaining to this case.... I was told that I would lose my son and do life in prison if I didn’t give the police JERMAINE FERGUSON. I told them that he was not with me but they continued to say that they wanted Ferguson and that they did not care about anybody else. So from the stress and my lack of knowledge in the law, I lied and said that Jermaine Ferguson was with me at the sceen [sic] of the crime, which he never was and I told the police that the first time.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ferguson v. State

2. ““(a) The court is reasonably well satisfied that the testimony given by a material witness is false. “(b) ... [Without [the testimony] the jury might have reached a different conclusion. “(c) ... [T]he party seeking the new trial was taken by surprise when the false testimony was given and was unable to meet it or did not know of its falsity until after the trial.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Dobbins v. State

3. “[a]n evidentiary hearing is often necessary to determine whether a recantation is genuine.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Reed v. State